My patrol area has a pretty large population of local year round homeless and transients who are just passing through. They bother the tourist with their aggressive panhandling and vehicle burglaries.
They damage property and tresspass when building their encampments.
They scare away customers from legitamite businesses.
They beat, stab, and rob eachother regularly.
I get a couple calls a day that are transient related.
Personally I cant stand them. Some agencies result to bum rides. Giving a bum a free "taxi" ride to another juristiction and a stern warning not to come back. But that is passing the buck at best and kidnapping at worst.
What I have found works best is to issue them citations for any violation, no matter how petty. It's all but a certainty that they will not show up in court or pay the fine. Then a Bench warrant is issued, allowing me to book them in the county jail 45 miles away. Hopefully upon their release, they will not trek the 45 mile back to my patrol area.
What have you guys found that works?

Nothing in this post should be considered information posted in an official capacity. It is the authors personal opinion alone.

Around here most of them are border line mental patients that fell through the cracks in the system. They can barely function and can barely get by on their govt. assistance. Not being a bleeding heart here, some of them are parasites and just choose to live that way.

OHHHH did you hit my button! I vote for scum. I don't even ticket anymore. Class C misdemeanor? Go to jail. I've had so much trouble from transients because the city feeds them in my patrol area. They stab/rob/murder each other on a regular basis, smoke crack, spread feces and urine everywhere, and will steal anything they can lift. We recently had a triple stabbing in the entertainment district from a transient. Walked through the crowds and stabbed three people at random with a 6" hunting knife. Two of them almost bled out before EMS arrived. We also had 4 transients (one female) kill a fifth one with a pickaxe for his 200$ SS check. With prostitution, fights and so forth transients are responsible for somewhere around 6-7 murders I'm familiar with this year in a 10 by 12 block area downtown.

Scum.
I send mine to John ("If I see you stop moving, you're going to jail.").
Seriously, most of the transients I dealt with were not down on their luck types. They were either seriously mentally ill persons who were in need of residential treatment, or they are career criminals just out of prisons. One of the biggest halfway houses (for parolees)in the state is just a few blocks from whee Johninaustin works.
They are often armed with edged weapons and will cut you (or anyone who crosses their path) for no particularly good reason.

I was recently in both Reno and Vegas and was amazed by the sheer numbers of transients walking the streets. Sad sign of the times I guess.
Twenty years ago the Burlington Northern freight trains would come to town and the bums would get off. We would occasionally round them up and ask them if they had any money? As our Town had a vagrancy statute(really we didn't) and the fine was ten days in jail, (now the kicker)....AT HARD LABOR!!!
We were good actors, used the good cop/bad cop routine , sometimes ALL of them would board the train and head out. Seldom did more than a few ever NOT leave.
Few years ago we had a local Officer shot and killed by a nut case with no provocation. These dreggs of society are a tough problem. Like it was mentioned by another poster, they are the forgotten , who have fallen through the cracks in the System.
FN